#real-estate
Real Estate
Real estate accounting, property tracking, and investment management
Custom Home Builder Bookkeeping: Section 460, Job Costing, Retainage, and NAHB Benchmarks
How independent residential GCs and custom home builders should structure their books — Section 460 method election, phase-level job cost categories, deposit and retainage handling, mechanics lien waiver discipline, warranty reserves, and the NAHB KPIs that matter.
Salon Suite and Booth Rental Bookkeeping: A Practical Guide for Suite Operators and Independent Stylists
How salon-suite operators and booth-renting stylists should separate ASC 842 lease revenue from ASC 606 service revenue, capitalize the build-out under QIP and Section 179, navigate the DOL 2024 worker-classification rule and state ABC tests, and track the few KPIs — suite occupancy, RevPRSF, average tenure — that actually predict location survival.
Self-Storage Facility Bookkeeping: Revenue Streams, Lien Sales, Tenant Protection Plans, and Cost Segregation
A working guide for self-storage operators on ASC 606 revenue recognition across rent, lien sale proceeds, deposits, and tenant protection plans; cost segregation that shifts 20–40% of basis into 5- and 15-year lives; and the economic occupancy and RevPAF KPIs lenders underwrite.
Real Estate Brokerage Bookkeeping in 2026: GCI, Agent Caps, Trust Accounts, and RESPA Compliance
How independent real estate brokerages should set up their chart of accounts in 2026 — separating GCI, agent splits, and franchise royalties into contra-revenue, running three-way trust-account reconciliations, documenting 1099-NEC payouts under IRC Section 3508, defending RESPA Section 8 entries, and accruing E&O self-insured retention reserves so company dollar, audit readiness, and Section 199A QBI all stay visible.
Mortgage Broker and Loan Originator Bookkeeping: LO Comp, RESPA, EPO Clawbacks, and HMDA Reporting
A working playbook for independent mortgage brokerages: separating lender-paid and borrower-paid compensation under the LO Comp Rule, accruing EPO/EPD clawback reserves, classifying RESPA Section 8 payments, deferring lock and application fees, and staging loan-level data for HMDA LAR filing.
Coworking Space Bookkeeping: ASC 606 Deferred Revenue, NOI Per Square Foot, and the Occupancy KPIs Lenders Demand
How coworking operators separate hot desk, dedicated desk, and private office revenue under ASC 606, hold refundable deposits as liabilities, allocate common-area square footage to compute NOI per foot, capitalize build-out as Qualified Improvement Property with 100% bonus depreciation in 2026, and report the occupancy, RevPOD, churn, and MRR concentration metrics that lenders and acquirers actually price on.
Title Insurance and Settlement Agent Bookkeeping: ALTA Best Practices, Three-Way Reconciliation, and the Compliance Realities of Closing Other People's Money
How title insurance agencies and settlement firms keep escrow trust books — three-way daily reconciliation, ALTA Best Practices controls, premium remittance liability tracking, RESPA Section 8 compliance, and the wire-fraud controls that survive a state department of insurance audit.
Form 1099-DIV Box 3: The Return-of-Capital Basis Trap for REIT, BDC, and MLP Investors
A practical walkthrough of Form 1099-DIV Box 3 nondividend distributions — how return-of-capital payments from REITs, BDCs, MLPs, and managed-distribution funds reduce your cost basis under IRC Section 301(c)(2), convert into immediate capital gain under 301(c)(3) once basis hits zero, and what records you need to keep so the IRS matching program never catches you short.
Real Estate Broker Trust Account Reconciliation: The Three-Way Match That Protects a License
A brokerage that commingles a single earnest money deposit can lose its license, even with no theft involved. Here is the three-way reconciliation between bank, general ledger, and client sub-ledgers that brokers use to comply with state escrow rules, document deposit handling, and stay audit-ready.
Section 1033 Involuntary Conversion: A Non-Farm Business Guide to Deferring Gain on Property Destroyed, Stolen, or Condemned
Section 1033 lets non-farm businesses defer gain on property that is destroyed, stolen, or condemned if the proceeds are reinvested in qualifying replacement property within 2, 3, or 4 years. This guide covers the election mechanics on Form 4797, the similar-or-related-in-service-or-use vs. like-kind tests, the carryover-basis recapture trap, and the bookkeeping needed to survive an IRS look-back.
Section 467 Rental Agreements: Stepped, Prepaid, and Deferred Rent Under the Tax Code's Anti-Abuse Rule
Section 467 forces accrual accounting and imputed interest on commercial leases over $250,000 with stepped, prepaid, or deferred rent — overriding cash-basis treatment, recharacterizing part of every rent payment as a deemed loan between landlord and tenant, and creating Schedule M-1 book-tax differences from ASC 842 straight-line rent.
The Self-Rental Rule Under Section 469: How the Grouping Election Defuses the Passive Loss Trap
Section 469's self-rental rule recharacterizes rent from your own building as active income while losses stay passive — a one-way street that traps small business owners. A timely grouping election under Reg. 1.469-4 defuses it; missing the first-return filing window usually means living with the asymmetry for good.